"He painted a picture, either oil or watercolor, in a way that was uniquely his own. It can perhaps best be described as a perpetual upsetting and restoring of balances. Cezanne began by sketching in pencil the dark outer contours -- the areas of shadow -- of the principal forms. With the first light pencil stroke he was in effect upsetting the balance of the empty canvas, and he had to restore it with another stroke -- a diagonal in one direction counterbalancing a diagonal in another perhaps, or a vertical counterbalancing a horizontal. An examination of a work abandoned at this early stage reveals that the rhythmical relationship of the principal masses has been established before objects have even assumed a recognizable form.
"At the same time that he made these first sketching indications of contour, Cezanne began putting next to them unconnected dabs of color -- a red where an apple would be, a green, complementing the red, next to a contour that would become a vase. He was here not only modulating the forms with color so that volumes gradually emerged from the shadowed contours, but also building a color composition. The first touch of red became, in effect, the keynote of the composition; from this point on, the composition grew according to what Cezanne called the 'logic of color,' involving another complex scheme of balancing and counterbalancing -- this time of colors rather than contours -- throughout the canvas. This explains why Cezanne did not pause to complete any single part or object in its entirety, literally advancing 'all of the canvas at one time.'" - Richard W. Murphy in The World of Cezanne, 1839 - 1906, Time-Life Books, 1968 |